The Ravens returned to the practice field on Wednesday and they continue to be without a number of key players.
According to multiple reports, quarterback Lamar Jackson remains out of practice due to the hamstring injury he suffered in Week 4 against the Chiefs. Cooper Rush started in place of Jackson last Sunday, but head coach John Harbaugh said earlier this week that everything is on the table when it comes to personnel changes this week.
Linebacker Roquan Smith also missed last Sunday’s loss to the Texans with a hamstring injury and he did not practice on Wednesday either. Cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey (calf) and Chidobe Awuzie (hamstring) joined Smith as defensive regulars on the sideline.
Left tackle Ronnie Stanley and safety Kyle Hamilton missed the Texans game, but they were at practice on Wednesday. Their presence against the Rams this weekend would be a welcome development for the reeling Ravens.
Rams Clips
Football, for the first time, is coming to Baltimore’s iconic baseball venue.
Via Todd Karpovich of the Baltimore Sun, the Rams will practice at Camden Yards in the days between their Week 6 game against the Ravens and their trip to London for a Week 7 game against the Jaguars.
The Rams struck a deal with the Orioles to use the facility from October 11 through 17.
Practicing at M&T Bank Stadium wasn’t an option, given the effort to preserve the quality of the grass field in the Ravens’ home venue.
As noted by Hayes Gardner of the Baltimore Banner, it will be the first time Camden Yards has ever been used for a sporting event other than a baseball game or practice since it opened 33 years ago.
In 1995, Camden Yards hosted a visit from the Pope. In recent years, concerts have been held there. Other than that, it’s been all baseball, with no football or other sports being played or practiced there.
The Rams’ practices at Camden Yards will be closed to the public.
It makes sense for the Rams, who otherwise would have had to return to L.A. and then re-cross the country before flying to London.
Sunday’s NFL games had not one but two incidents of Skycam interference. In any week, one incident is one too many.
In the latest edition of SiriusXM’s Let’s Go! podcast, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford addressed the intersection between enhancing the at-home viewing experience and preserving the integrity of the on-field product.
“I understand being able to bring the fans the unbelievable angles that [TV] does,” Stafford told Jim Gray. “And sometimes, even as a player, I’m like, ‘Man, that’s a cool shot of what just happened,’ and you really appreciate that. But at the same time, we’ve got to find a way to make sure that those things aren’t playing a role in the outcome of the game.
“I remember I was in college and I’m warming up for the Outback Bowl and I drop back to pass and I’m just throwing it and I blow the camera up. I mean, hit the lens, blew the camera up, and thought to myself, ‘Man, I didn’t even see it there, didn’t even feel it there.’ . . . If it’s gonna be there and the ball’s gonna hit it or whatever, we’ve gotta find a way to review that, overturn it, whatever it is. . . . It could be a wide-open touchdown and we’re hitting a wire somewhere, and you can’t just replay that and act like it wasn’t gonna be points for one team or the other.”
The rulebook requires a do-over for any play in which a live ball strikes the Skycam or the cables supporting it. On Sunday, when a batted pass thrown by Jets quarterback Justin Fields smacked into the Skycam, the Jets should have gotten another shot at scoring on third and goal from the Dallas seven. While everyone saw the ball strike the floating camera, the ultimate ruling of incomplete pass was incorrect. (And the Jets failed to use a challenge flag.)
Earlier in the day, a 51-yard field goal attempt by Vikings kicker Will Reichard in London seemed to strike one of the cables that move the Skycam. It was missed in real time, by everyone.
It’s a simple pass-fail proposition. And it’s a failure any time the ball hits part of the Skycam apparatus. It’s a double failure when the do-over rule is improperly applied.
Here’s a fair question. Do we really need it? How many times does it create a truly memorable video clip?
Then there’s the availability of drones. Smaller device, no wires. And it presumably can be programmed to sense an approaching ball and zip away.
Here’s hoping the notoriously reactive NFL treats Sunday’s incidents as the impetus for taking a fresh look at the Skycam protocols. And here’s hoping it happens before the 45-pound device falls and hits someone — as it nearly did during a 2007 NFL game.
The 3-2 Rams could be 5-0. But a trio of blocked kicks, and a missed 53-yard field goal on Thursday night against the 49ers, have contributed directly to both losses.
On Monday, coach Sean McVay was asked whether he is evaluating the kicking game differently after having a weekend off to digest the Week 5 upset loss.
“I think you lean in,” McVay told reporters. “I don’t want to get too granular with you guys for the different reasons that it hasn’t gone down, but there’s going to be an intentional approach, all hands on deck, which that’s always been the case. We’ll lean in more than we have. I just refuse to believe that this isn’t something that we can’t fix. We’re going to continue to fight, scratch and claw to be able to give the techniques, the fundamentals and get the right people in the right spots. Then ultimately understand what is going to be required for us to execute at a high clip in a phase that is supremely important. It’s cost us through the first five weeks.”
A pair of field goals were blocked by the Eagles in Week 3. The second one would have won the game.
Against the 49ers, a blocked extra point left the game tied at 20, setting the stage for a 23-23 score at the end of regulation.
And then, in overtime, kicker Joshua Karty’s otherwise effective “dirty ball” kickoff landed short of the landing zone. By seven yards. That put the 49ers on their own 40 to start what became the game-winning drive.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh dismissed the idea of changes to the coaching staff after Sunday’s blowout loss to the Ravens, but he left the door open to just about everything else on Monday.
The Ravens fell to 1-4 with the loss and Harbaugh said they have “a lot of decisions to make” before they return to action against the Rams in Week 6. Those decisions will involve changes to scheme and personnel as they try to right the ship.
“Everything’s on the table,” Harbaugh said, via the team’s website. “There are guys in that area where they still have to prove themselves. They are the starters because they have earned that, to a point, but you’ve got to keep earning that. You’ve got to keep getting better. You can’t plateau. If we were hoping for you to make more progress as a player and it’s not happening, at some point in time, somebody else is going to get a chance.”
Harbaugh was asked specifically about turning to Tyler Huntley at quarterback if Lamar Jackson remains out with a hamstring injury. Cooper Rush started against Houston.
“Consider everything,” Harbaugh said. “Every part of it to try to get the win. That’ll be talked about the next 24 hours.”
The Ravens can only do so much shuffling with an injury-riddled roster, so the execution is going to have to be better across the board if their losing run is going to come to an end in time for them to make any noise down the stretch this season.
With a 126-yard receiving performance in Week 4, Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson has gotten closer and closer to making a final assault on the record books for early-career achievement.
Jefferson now has 7,758 receiving yards, four games into his sixth NFL season. With 79 yards on Sunday against the Browns, Jefferson will pass Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson for fourth on the list of most receiving yards in a player’s first six seasons.
Johnson had 7,836. Ranking third is Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, with 7,866. Next is Torry Holt, with 8,156. And the leader is Hall of Famer Randy Moss, at 8,375 yards.
Jefferson needs only 618 yards over the next 13 games to pass Moss for first place. That’s an average of only 47.5 yards per game. So, yes, it looks like the current Vikings star will leapfrog the former Vikings star as Jefferson keeps putting together a Hall of Fame case of his own.
Who’s house? Last night, it was not the “Rams House.”
As expected, 49ers fans overran SoFi Stadium for Thursday night’s 26-23 overtime win over the Rams.
Look at all the red. And the 49ers fans could be heard, too. Loudly. All game long. The roars when the 49ers scored. The chants of “de-fense!” when the Rams had the ball. The silent count the home team used.
Earlier this week, Rams coach Sean McVay said he was “hopeful and optimistic” that Rams fans would show up. Not nearly enough did.
It continues to be a basic reality of abandoning a market for 20 years and then coming back, with two teams. 49ers and Raiders fans are everywhere in L.A. Kids born after 1995 were able to follow any team they wanted. Even with a Super Bowl win four years ago by the Rams, the tide hasn’t come close to turning.
It’ll be 30 days until the Rams play another home game, against the Saints. Given the current state of the New Orleans franchise, maybe the silent count won’t be needed. Possibly because there will be plenty of silence coming from unoccupied seats in the stands.
Coaches and players will look for motivation wherever they can find it. For the 49ers on Thursday night, they didn’t have to look hard.
The point spread moved from three to 8.5, with the Rams entering the game the clear favorite. After the 26-23 overtime win by the 49ers, quarterback Mac Jones was asked about being the underdog for the division rivalry.
“I don’t really pay attention to much of it,” Jones told reporters. “I don’t really do social media that much, but [coach] Kyle [Shanahan] came up to me and he was pissed about it. So he’s like, ‘Dude, I can’t believe they moved us to underdogs again or more.’ I am like, ‘I don’t know what that means really, but yeah, let’s go kill them.’ He was pissed about it. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m pissed too.’”
Jones’s delivered suggested sarcasm on his part. But Shanahan apparently was serious.
If so, it worked. The 49ers pulled it off, despite missing more than a few key players.
Rams running back Kyren Williams got stopped short of a first down on the final play of Thursday night’s game against the 49ers, but the fourth down call in overtime wasn’t the only play he’d like to do over.
Williams lost a fumble when 49ers defensive lineman Alfred Collins punched the ball out of his hands a couple of yards outside of the end zone. The fumble came with just over a minute to play in regulation and the Rams trailing by three points, so it’s no surprise that it was the biggest regret that Williams had when the Rams wound up losing the game.
“S—t sucks,” Williams said. “I don’t know. For me, I just got to hold onto the ball. I feel like I let the team down at the 1-yard line, not securing the one thing that matters and scoring the touchdown. So, for me, I put this all on me, honestly, and just knowing that I got to be better.”
The 49ers punted after the fumble and the Rams rallied for a field goal that sent the game into overtime. After the 49ers kicked a field goal to open the extra period, the Rams drove to the 11-yard line and head coach Sean McVay called a running play for Williams. The blocking was not there, but Williams said there’s “always a chance” to make a play before pivoting back to the turnover.
“We wouldn’t have even gotten there if I’d held onto the ball,” Williams said.
Williams and the Rams will have to try to put Thursday night behind them, but that kind of loss in a divisional game is the sort of thing that can be tough to shake as the playoff race starts to take shape.
Rams coach Sean McVay put Thursday night’s loss to the 49ers on himself for the call he made on the last play of the game.
McVay called a run into the line on fourth-and-1 at the 49ers’ 11-yard line with 3:41 remaining in overtime, and the 49ers were ready for it and stopped it for no gain.
“Bad call. Bad call by me,” McVay said. “It was a poor decision by me right there.”
McVay said he didn’t consider kicking a field goal to tie the game.
“No. In hindsight I wish I would have, but we came in here to try to win the football game,” McVay said. “That wasn’t even thought, but the play selection was very poor. I’m sick right now because I put our players in a shitty spot.”
McVay said there were better plays he could have called and he was kicking himself for what he went with.
“My job is to try to put our players in successful situations,” McVay said. “That wasn’t it right there.”
That was the call that ended the game, with the 49ers holding on to win 26-23.
